This invention relates generally to product processing systems and, more particularly, to a system for processing products in chemical laboratories and the like.
Automated laboratory systems are used widely to reduce the costs of performing multi-step chemical production and testing procedures. Many such systems employ a robotic device to move material, parts, tools or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks. In a typical operation, a robot is one module of an operating system and would interact with several other modules, which may be called work stations, to achieve the processing of chemical samples. For example, pipette stations, liquid dispensing stations, diluting stations, washing stations and incubation stations are typical stations. Examples of robotic processing systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,510,684; 4,578,764; 4,586,151; 4,835,711; 5,355,439 and 5,363,885.
The user of a robotic processing system first arranges processing stations in any convenient pattern and then instructs a robot in given processing actions. Even though programming tasks, once understood by an operator, are not intellectually challenging, the task of setting up a system to operate efficiently is laborious. As the number of stations in a system increased, the number of variables to keep in mind to avoid collisions and otherwise avoid conflicts in instruction made the task laborious even for those skilled in computer programming. In addition, prior automatic processing systems have exhibited deficiencies when used for certain laboratory test procedures requiring predetermined environmental conditions. In drug screening processes, for example, test samples must be incubated in an environment having stringent requirements for certain characteristics such as temperature, humidity and CO.sub.2 content. Test results can be affected adversely variations of environmental conditions caused by opening of an incubator for insertion or removal of product samples or during movement thereof between sequential work stations.
The object of this invention, therefore, is to provide an improved system for chemical processes such as drug screening.